Martin Luther’s Monsters
Prodigies, or monsters, were opaque and flexible symbols that signaled that God was sending some message.
Plant of the Month: The Runner Bean
From Aztec medicinal remedies to Darwin’s study of flower pollination, local knowledge about the runner bean reveals the importance of biodiversity.
Sci-Fi and Fantasy Build Mental Resiliency in Young Readers
Science fiction offers readers a way to rethink social dilemmas.
The Timeless Art of the Bookcase Flex
Flaunting a massive collection of books did not start with work-from-home videoconferences.
How Fritz Lang’s Flight from Nazi Germany Shaped Hollywood
German expressionism--imported to Hollywood by Jewish exiles--brought a lasting tradition of shadows, duality, and mirroring to mainstream American cinema.
The Library That Walked Across Belgium
What two scholar-artists learned from taking ninety books on a very, very long walk.
Deep Mapping with Tim Robinson
By walking his way around an island off the coast of Ireland, the late artist broke with cartography's origins in marking ownership and conquest.
Do Series Books Turn Kids Off Adult-Approved Novels?
Goosebumps. The Baby-Sitters Club. Even Nancy Drew. In the 1990s, concerned educators wondered if series books were luring kids away from "literature."
The First Movie Kiss
The public fascination was so intense that fans soon started demanding live reenactments.
The Linguistics of Cooties (and Other Weird Things Kids Say)
The game of cooties lets children learn about the idea of contagion, but kid culture and wordplay aren't meant for adults.